The Most Important SEO Lesson of the Week

[Kurt]

Forget what you think you know about keywords. Below I've linked to a document containing actual keyword queries from real folks.

Note that this info is about 7 years old. This is because I used a program called wordmarket to gather this info, and this stuff is no longer available.

Since it's so old, the exact keywords/phrases don't mean much. Instead, look at how people REALLY search. These are the RAW searches and may contain some "bad" words.

But examine this list. Look at the "styles" of the searches...

How many words?
How many use quotes?
How many use other qualifiers such as "and" or "+"?
How many are long tail?
What percentage are "obscure and one of a kind"?
How many are for products?
How many are about IM?

In poker, it's essential to understand how the other players think...And in SEO, it's just as important to understand how searchers think.

Again, don't take this list literally, but look at habits and trends. This is one of the rare instances where you can actually view REAL, RAW search queries, even if they are 7 years old.

http://www.dombom.com/dcforum/User_f...8a6c121a69.txt

[KenJ]

That is very interesting.
I'm thinking that people might be "better" searchers nowadays. Not sure

thanks for the info

kenj

[rockstar99]

Cool stuff. When i search it's an absolute mess. Almost everything i search is a long question, or 5 plus words when it comes to research. I believe most people still have a root keyword phrase, but just add words to get more specific results. This is important to recognize in niche markets for SEOers

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by kenj

That is very interesting.
I'm thinking that people might be "better" searchers nowadays. Not sure

thanks for the info

kenj

Hey Ken,

I agree...I believe the trend is that people are using more words today in their searches than they did back then. I think it's safe to say that they are NOT less sophisticated today than back then.

To All...

Again, these are real, actual searches collected when we had access to this info.

Just quickly scroll through them and get a general idea of how people really search...

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by kenj

That is very interesting.
I'm thinking that people might be "better" searchers nowadays. Not sure

thanks for the info

kenj

Originally Posted by rockstar99

Cool stuff. When i search it's an absolute mess. Almost everything i search is a long question, or 5 plus words when it comes to research. I believe most people still have a root keyword phrase, but just add words to get more specific results. This is important to recognize in niche markets for SEOers

Originally Posted by Kurt

Hey Ken,

I agree...I believe the trend is that people are using more words today in their searches than they did back then. I think it's safe to say that they are NOT less sophisticated today than back then.

To All...

Again, these are real, actual searches collected when we had access to this info.

Just quickly scroll through them and get a general idea of how people really search...

Coincidently I just came across this research:

Searchers Using Longer Queries in 2009

[Al-Leyson]

I only have 1 SEO lesson and I follow this everyday...

AVOID BLACK HAT TRICKS

[neno]

Thanks for the information.

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by Al-Leyson

I only have 1 SEO lesson and I follow this everyday...

AVOID BLACK HAT TRICKS

If this is the case, then I strongly suggest you learn a few more lessons.

BTW, this thread had NOTHING to do with "black hat tricks" and everything to do with understanding how people search.

But my guess is you're just trying to increase your post count...

[McBrett]

Interesting.. Where did you find this information?

Also, the most popular search phrase was Back To Infospace?

Perform an all in title search in Google for it: allintitle:"Back To Infospace"

Ok, I already did you don't have to. No Results. Seems strange that no one would be targetting that.

I think the good ol' Google Keyword Discovery Tool is about the best estimator of search queries online. That along with your own analytics.

[Leedir]

Awareness plays a role in the words used for searching I guess. I used to always type out the whole question or the statement within quotes. Now I still am not sure whether to use the quotes or not. I generally use them only when the search without the quotes did not get me the results I was looking for.

[vishal4blue]

Hi there
Mr. Kurt your post is very informative thanks for sharing. But i want to share my little bit knowledge about Keywords here:

Key words
Keywords are words and phrases that web users put into search engines when they are looking for particular topics, services or products.

Optimizing your website so it turns up in the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) search engine ranking of pages, can spell success for you. Only if you choose the right keywords can you begin on the winning trail of SEO.

Deciding on keywords
How exactly do you choose keywords- this is a precise art:
First you must prepare a list of your product/services workings. Every word that describes product/service must be included. Not that all the words will be used but it’s handy to have a database.
Secondly you must identify your target audience. Choosing effective keywords is about putting yourself in your audience’s shoes. Research their tastes, likes-dislikes, their needs and requirements.
The next stage is to judge the value of the words and phrases on your list have as search terms. For this there are several software’s available like-
Word tracker is the most popular and respected keyword research tool.
Keyword Discovery have an extensive keyword database.
Google Ad Words provide a keyword generation tool, to help you choose keyword variations.
In the last stage you must narrow down your Keyword choice to 2-3 words or phrases. Any more than this your web page will resemble crowded street.

[Marakatapolis]

"how to burn a house with out getting caught"


BWA HA HA HA HA!

I came very close to spitting my coffee out when I read that search term

[IntegratedS]

Cool.......Quiet informative...
Thanks
IntegratedS

[searchnology]

7 years makes this almost irrelevant data because as someone has mentioned, people search differently nowadays but I'll go along with the premise.

I use Google Analytics to review the actual search terms people typed in to get to my sites and I always find some interesting new ideas, though as keyword focus goes I think most search engines try to discern the major theme of your search term so focusing on very long tail keywords may not make as much sense from a effort allocation perspective.

How do I know this? Because based on my Google Analytics data, people are finding my site based on long tail keywords that I am not focusing on whatsoever.

For example: If your primary keyword is "Italian Cookbooks" you will probably show up for longtail keywords like "best italian cookbooks in texas", "how to use an italian cookbook on the west coast" etc. as well.

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by searchnology

7 years makes this almost irrelevant data because as someone has mentioned, people search differently nowadays but I'll go along with the premise.

I use Google Analytics to review the actual search terms people typed in to get to my sites and I always find some interesting new ideas, though as keyword focus goes I think most search engines try to discern the major theme of your search term so focusing on very long tail keywords may not make as much sense from a effort allocation perspective.

How do I know this? Because based on my Google Analytics data, people are finding my site based on long tail keywords that I am not focusing on whatsoever.

For example: If your primary keyword is "Italian Cookbooks" you will probably show up for longtail keywords like "best italian cookbooks in texas", "how to use an italian cookbook on the west coast" etc. as well.

Which backs up my own philosopy that's 13 years old, twice as old as the data I posted in the OP. And that is, put as many relevant words on a page as possible, so you have as many relevant word combos as possible.

While the searches above may be 7 years old, this is about the "typical" advice some give to optimize a page for one keyword or phrase, when in reality every word on the page (except stop words) are keyword and can and do work in combo with every other word on the page.

I also posted a link to more recent search studies in this thread.

And Google stats only show you the searches used to find your pages, not all the other pages indexed or what search queries people actually use.

The point is, people don't search like the experts say they do. And the trend today is even "more so", not less than 7 years ago. If someone enters a 5 word search, it's likely a page that contains all 5 of those words will out rank another page that only contains 2, and the trend is people are using more and more longer searches.

[awmi]

Great information. Thanks for sharing.

A long time ago I use to check what people are searching by using MetaSpy.

Now I do the same search using Dogpile SearchSpy.

[Tacit]

Interesting list. Cheers for the info!

[GSX Enterprises]

It's really interesting but isn't it a crapshoot trying to figure out not only long tail keywords but which are searched ad nauseaum? I mean I see what you're saying, I just wouldn't want to make a whole website around a guess?

-Safe Travels

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by Kurt

Which backs up my own philosopy that's 13 years old, twice as old as the data I posted in the OP. And that is, put as many relevant words on a page as possible, so you have as many relevant word combos as possible.

This is the importance of writing good quality content. If you write with knowledge of a subject you will cover most keywords naturally. You don't need to force it.

The problem is, people need a starting point. This starting point comes from the most searched for terms. These most searched terms ARE searched for. The combinations you mention MAY be searched for. It is much easier to determine a market by using known variables (or at least ball park figures).

[RedEvo]

If you want to know how people 'think' where search is concerned try Seed Keywords Engine, A FREE Keyword Tool, Find Seed Keywords for FREE

d